29 July 2007

Woke up an hour early, I've been on Eastern time too long. But I didn't get up until 5 anyway, and then dawdled too long with the computer, so I still didn't get going until 8.

I don't trust the GPS so much anymore, so when it wanted me to turn south with 52, I zoomed out, and it looked to me like 52 was making a jog, but would come back north, so I kept going straight. By now I was needing gas, so I'm looking for towns and not finding any, and the GPS keeps trying to get me back on track. I'm sorta willing, but all the roads it picks are gravel. I figure I'll come to a major one sooner or later, and eventually I do, and it has a town and a gas station. And it's the road I'm going to take south for a while anyway, so the GPS relents, and we continue on our way.

Just before 11, there were a few sprinkles of rain, and it looked like it was going to, so I pulled over and closed up. It came down pretty seriously for about 20 minutes, then drizzled off and on for a while more, then got hot 'n' muggy.

I stopped once for a little rest, but was making pretty good time, with mostly 65 mph speed limits, no matter the condition of the road. The speed, and a bit of a head wind, aren't doing my mileage any good. And US 50 is mostly skirting towns, so I'm getting a bit concerned about gas. Finally, there's a corner gas station outside of a town, so I pull in and start to fill up. While I'm writing in the gas log, I hear a strange noise, look over and see gas pouring out of the tank. The auto shut off didn't. Hate to waste the gas, hate the damage to the environment, hate to screw up my calculations...

The day has heated up pretty seriously by this point, so I break out the wet towel and continue on. Looks like I'll get to Dodge City around 1530, and that'll be enough for the day.

First, though, there's another rain squall, for about 5 minutes. I finally discovered that if I close my face shield all the way, open the vents and breathe carefully, it works better than having it cracked a little (which allows rain to come in behind the shield, spattering the inside, and my glasses).

I take the Dodge City exit, and wend my way through 3 1/2 miles of construction on the main drag to the Thunderbird Motel (I'd actually set a waypoint for it) ($35), then drove back and up to Dillon's for groceries ($11).

States: Missouri, Kansas.
433 GPS miles (10143 total), 61.7 moving average, 84.9 max.
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